Jerry Falwell, Jr. - “You Don't Choose A President Based On How Good They Are”

According to Jerry Falwell, Jr., evangelical support for Donald Trump isn't hypocritical, because "we're all sinners".

Jerry Falwell, Jr. recently told The Washington Post that voters should not choose their presidents based on a candidate’s morals but on their policies.

The Liberty University president added that it is not hypocritical for the evangelical community to back President Donald Trump despite his behavior, and it might be “immoral” for evangelicals not to support him.

In an interview with The Washington Post published Tuesday, the Liberty University president was pressed about his support for President Trump and asked whether it was "hypocritical" for evangelical leaders to support "a leader who has advocated violence and who has committed adultery and lies often?"

Falwell resorted to an “all people sin” defense:

"When Jesus said we’re all sinners, he really meant all of us, everybody. I don’t think you can choose a president based on their personal behavior," Falwell said.

"Because even if you choose the one that you think is the most decent — let’s say you decide Mitt Romney. Nobody could be a more decent human being, better family man. But there might be things that he’s done that we just don’t know about,” Falwell continued. "So you don’t choose a president based on how good they are; you choose a president based on what their policies are. That’s why I don’t think it’s hypocritical."

Falwell also told The Post there is nothing Trump could do to jeopardize his support, saying he cannot imagine the president “doing anything that’s not good” for the United States.

“Only because I know that he only wants what’s best for this country, and I know anything he does, it may not be ideologically ‘conservative,’ but it’s going to be what’s best for this country, and I can’t imagine him doing anything that’s not good for the country,” Falwell explained.

He said it may be “immoral” for other evangelical leaders to criticize the president because Trump lowered unemployment rates among African-American and Hispanic populations.

The evangelical leader has long supported Trump, frequently appearing on cable news shows to defend that support, as well as the president himself.

Falwell told CNN in June 2016 that evangelicals were not electing a pastor, making Trump's moral shortcomings irrelevant.